~ snails in art

(242) KHP kh206953

This little story has to be viewed from left to right. The person carried by two others hits the head of the first carrier, who starts to fight with the second one thinking he delivered the blow. The actual offender meanwhile hides away.

These pictures were taken from a German source and pasted in an album by a child around 1850, and is part of the collection of Kharbine Tapabor, Paris.

The shell is Helix-like with a colour pattern of spiral bands. Interestingly, in the left and middle figures the shell is dextral, while in the right-hand figure it is sinistral. Chirality with a twist…